Auckland and the Wheat Duties.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19220, 28 January 1928, Page 14

Auckland and the Wheat Duties.

The Canterbury Chamber of Commerce will doubtless take notice of the agitation which is being carried on by the Auckland Chamber against the duty on wheat. It does not appear that the Auckland Chamber has been so much disturbed by the duty on flour as by the duty on wheat, and this is not difficult to understand. Mour-milling is an important industry in Auckland, but wheat-growing is not. The Auckland Chamber, on receiving a reply from Mr Downie Stewart to its first protest against the duty on wheat, decided to come out as a champion of the breadconsuming public. Mr Stewart had said that although the duties had been operative for nearly three months he had not heard of any increase in the price of bread. This sact did not weigh at all with the Auckland Chamber, which can always find reasons for attacking any industry which has not its headquarters in Queen street. It could not deny that the price of bread had not risen, but it answered that although the duty had not raised prices

it might have prevented a fall which would otherwise have taken place. It presented this argument to the Minister in general terms and if Mr Stewart wishes to do so, he can ask the Auckland Chamber whether it will support a sharp reduction of the duties on all other commodities. Of course the Chamber would say that it could not do that, because to do it would be to injure 'some Auckland interests. The professed concern of the Auckland Chamber for the poor man who eats bread is slightly nauseating. In the first place it is not genuine: the Auckland Chamber is not thinking of the breadeater at all. It is thinking of the horrible fact that a South Island industry is receiving protection. In the second place the members of the Chamber know perfectly well that the price of bread is almost the least important price there is, not only for the well-to-do, but even for those who are poorly off. A rise of a penny in the price of the loaf would cost the average family one-third of the price of a seat in the movies each week. The final complaint of the Chamber is that the sliding duties create difficulties and " uncertainty." Mr Stewart will probably ask the Chamber how this can be so, since whatever may be said for or against the sliding duty the one thing that it does do is to make the price of foreign wheat landed in Auckland as nearly a fixed price as possible.